A year after Queen Victoria died in 1902 the bearded, pleasure loving Prince Edward, Prince of Wales was crowned King Edward VII. As one of the many ways of celebrating this, the end of the 'Victorian Age', Harry Tagg of East Molesey on the river Thames, built an 81ft Hurlingham-style passenger steam-boat, not in iron and steel, but in teak. She was christened The King and became sister ship to The Windsor, owned by Thames Launches Ltd, of Eel Pie Island, Twickenham.